Can You Make Soap Without Lye?

Lye might sound scary, and it is, but can you make soap without it? Learn some soap recipes to safely use this ingredient.

Looking to make soap without lye?

Smart! You want to avoid the dangers of this harsh chemical.

Lye is drain cleaner after all. Why would anyone want to use it?

Unfortunately, I’m going to burst your bubble. YOU CANNOT MAKE SOAP WITHOUT LYE.

I remember scouring the web for hours looking for a way to make soap without lye. Determined there was a way. Maybe you’re in the same place.

I never discovered the secret to a lye free soap. Because there isn’t one…

BUT there is a way to customize your soap without handling lye. There’s one catch… The soap base you use will originally be made using lye. YOU just won’t have to handle the lye.

Pretty cool right??

Handmade soap with lye produces a superior product to the two methods below. But…. It’s a pretty good trade-off for not handling lye.

Why Make Your Own Soap?

When I started using handmade soaps in our home, I did not make them. I bought them from a supplier on Etsy. Now I sell my handmade soaps on Etsy!

Maybe you’re at the same point in your life. Or maybe you’re still using the store-bought stuff.

If you are, I encourage you to make the swap to handmade soaps. There are some not so good for you ingredients in store-bought soaps.

I felt the push to switch to natural soaps in hopes to get my son’s eczema under control. I’d read countless stories from others. Stories that goats milk soap soothed away eczema and irritation.

It didn’t work that way for us.

The skincare changes alone did not heal his eczema.

What finally made it better? A combination of the skincare changes, diet changes, and the use of shea butter lotion.

After a while, I got spoiled with handmade soaps. I didn’t want to go back to the store-bought stuff.

But the cost of those handmade soaps was adding up. With 6 people in our family, we seem to go through a lot of soap. It could have something to do with my kids dropping the bar of soap into the bath yet waiting 10 minutes to find it. I swear they sneak it in the tub when I’m not looking. Hmmm….

So, I finally took the plunge and made my own soap.

Is Soap Making Really that Scary?

The first time making soap is intimidating. It was for me.

Learning to ride your bike for the first time was intimidating too. You risked falling off your bike. Scraping your knees or worse yet, breaking a bone. Yet you persevered. Right?

Doing anything for the first time is a little scary.

Maybe you’re thinking…

What if I blow up the house?

Or if the soap batch fails and I’m left with a toxic mess to clean up.

What if I hurt myself or someone in my family?

I promise, with a little precaution it is NOT SCARY to make soap with lye.

I make my own soaps and use lye on a regular basis. Even with 4 little ones in my house. With proper precautions, you can too.

I’m going to share some tips on how to handle lye below AND a vegan soap recipe.

But let’s get back to those two ways to customize your own soap WITHOUT handling lye.

How to Rebatch Soap

If you’re already buying handmade soaps, then this is the technique for you.

You can either grate up some bars of handmade soap or use soap scraps.

What are soap scraps? The little bits of soap left at the end of the bar. Many people throw them in the trash.

Add the grated soap or soap scraps to an old crockpot. Add a little bit of water so you don’t burn the soap.

Let it melt until it’s a mashed potato consistency. Stir as little as possible because it will get soapy. Yet stir enough that the soap doesn’t burn. As long as you have enough water and have the crockpot set to low, you should be good to go.

Once you melt the soap, customize your rebatched soap with essential oils and herbs.

This is my favorite way to add essential oils to soaps.

Essential oils are delicate. Once you combine the oil, water, and lye to make soap, the batter gets very hot. Which is bad news for essential oils.

I prefer this method since the soap does not get nearly as hot as traditional cold process soap., preserving the therapeutic benefits of the essential oils.

I’ve had my older children help me to rebatch soap; it’s a great way to get them in on the action.

The downside of rebatched soap is the consistency.

That mashed potatoes consistency will show in your finished soap product. It does not look like the smooth consistency of cold process soap.

Rebatched soap works just as well as cold process soap without all the unwanted ingredients, AND you get to customize it!!

Melt and Pour Soap

This is probably the most common way you’ll read about to make soap without lye.

At first it sounds awesome! The finished product is smooth like cold process soap.

There are two downsides:

The ingredients – Many melt and pour soap bases are no better then what you’re buying in the store. All with a bigger price tag.

Melt and pour soaps are inferior to cold process soaps. Personally, I feel most are slimy. Many contain detergents that dry out your skin.

Melt and pour soaps are pretty, but most melt and pour soap bases are not something I’m excited about using.

Wear Proper Safety Equipment

It’s important to protect your work surface too. Since I work in my kitchen, the last thing I want is some lye granules hanging around on my counter.

Line your counters with newspaper. It’s easy to wrap it all up and throw it into the trash.

Sometimes I use a cardboard box to measure my lye. Some of those lye beads can be unruly. If that happens to you, use an unscented dryer sheet. Wipe down the outside of the lye bottle before pouring. Paying close attention to the mouth of the bottle. Static electricity is the problem. That’s why I prefer the lye flakes.

About Shannon

Shannon is Mom of 4 kids with a passion to help others understand what’s really safe to put on your children's skin - soaps, cleaners and more. Shannon loves to DIY – check out her DIY cleaners and beauty recipes she uses personally in her home at Natural Soap Mom.

You have asked two fantastic questions!! Lye or sodium hydroxide is used in most soap making applications. Potash or Potassium Hydroxide is what you use to make liquid soap.

I use Sodium Hydroxide in cold process soap. I use Potassium Hydroxide to make liquid soap paste.

When you make soap batter, it will be liquid at first. So you pour it into your mold. Gradually the soap gets harder and harder. There is no way to keep it liquid. You want the soap to get hard and go through the whole process so that no lye remains.

You can put your freshly made bar of soap into some water and let it dissolve. It’s usually pretty soft the first few days. Then just use that as body wash. Although I find it gets kind of slimy.

Instead I make soap with Potassium Hydroxide to make a soap paste specifically designed to dissolve in water and not get slimy.

While I’ve made many batches of regular cold process soap, I’ve only made liquid soap a handful of times. It lasts a really long time and is a great alternative to buying castile soap. I also use it as laundry detergent using 100% coconut oil soap. It’s fabulous!

Anyway… here is a link on how to make liquid soap from Tracy over at Oh The Things We’ll Make – she has the tutorial I followed to make soap paste. Again the soap paste easily dissolves in water and does not get slimy. It’s pretty awesome stuff! But it’s made like hot process soap in the crockpot.

I hope I’ve answered your questions – they were awesome questions!! Sounds like you’ve been doing your homework. Hope you take the plunge and make some soap soon 🙂 It’s fun!!

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